Anybody know who made this and around what year??? Scored it at iola for a dollar !think I'm going to use it on my LaSalle trans Sent from my Moto E (4) using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
And this one? Same guy sold me this for two bux Sent from my Moto E (4) using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I recall my first 3 speed floor shifter was a Spark-O-Matic. They were cheap. Mine was a little different though because the handle screwed into the shifter and it would turn on a hard 1st to 2nd shift and I would bang my knuckles on the dash. J.C. Whitney/Warshawski sold some of those cheap shifters too. They were more than a dollar though. You done good. I think they were made around the mid 60s.
The Foxcraft shifter I had, the handle screwed into the shifter with a lock nut to hold it in place. As 56don said, a hard 1 - 2 shift will put your knuckles into the dash. It didn't look like either of those shifters though.
Well, maybe I am wrong. I must have had a Foxcraft shifter instead of a Sparkomatic. I have had so much junk over the years that I can't remember it all.
Agreed. The first one looks to be an Ansen. The second one I can't place my finger on this second, but I've seen the mount before. BOP selector shift trans comes to mind.
The Spark-O-Matic I had in my 51 Merc had a bad habit of hanging up between gears. I pretty well had it down to a science to lift the boot (didn't have it screwed down) and slip a hubcap removing tool (flat bar with a 90 on one end with the ends shaped like screwdriver tip) and moving the levers back to neutral without getting out of the driver's seat.
Hello, Those TWO old shifters were sold to the public? I can’t remember seeing those way back then, (while in high school) being sold commercially. Gee, I guess my first and second try at making a shifter in our HS Metal Shop and Automotives Class were a slight bit nicer in comparison. We used a large metal rod with internal threads for the main control section. The rest of the flat linkage was machined from flat metal and shaped to fit. The long, threaded end, shift rod lever was added, redesigned to fit and then painted or polished. The first shifter went into my friend's 52 Pontiac and we had to unscrew the long lever that stuck out of the floorboard past the dashboard. It hit the dash with the first lever we installed. If we did not have the ability to unscrew the long lever, we would have to cut the weld off. Then weld on some other bent rod with less strength in the design, let alone damaging the shift unit. We can thank the teacher as he said that welding is strong, but mentioned the flexibility of a threaded joint to solve this problem. (no, not that kind of joint) The internally threaded base unit could accept any "threaded to fit" rod lever, bent, straight, or a fancy curve as the rod bender could create. With the main shift mechanism using an internal threaded rod, we could make any shape or design in the actual rod that sticks up above the floor to the dash. The design was for being able to change with any threaded curved or straight rod. Just screw in the rod, run a cardboard drawing for clearance of the seat and dash and make the curved floor shift rod to fit. (Since the build and installation was keeping the 55 Chevy out of commission for too long, my friend's dad paid for a commercial unit at the local speed shop for installation) The commercial shifter unit lever we did buy and install for a friend for his 55 Chevy 2 door post was threaded. It was a good thing because the bench seat had a hard time clearing the original upward shift rod design. We made one to fit and clear the seat in all gear positions. It was similar to the curved rod lever of the 59-60 Impala 4 speeds. Jnaki Back in those days, silver paint was our mode, as chroming was very expensive and beyond our teenage budgets. With polishing, buffing and fine sanding, the surface of the shifting lever rod looked very good with the silver paint.
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